So, today is being spent doing loads and loads of work. I need to:

So I randomly saw the Queen and Prince Philip on Monday.

It’s not that I don’t love London.

He did it!! It was awesome. I was a bit of a slacker and only stayed up til 3:30am London time. After he won Ohio, I figured it was over. But he won by SUCH a landslide!! I’m so happy!!

This weekend in London was an event called “Battle of Ideas.” Basically, it was a bunch of discussion forums and debates about politics, art, culture, the family, ethics, etc, etc. The participants were journalists and academics mainly. I went to three: (1) Radicalism then and now: the legacy of 1968, (2) What does it mean to be American?, and (3) Free speech on campus: should we ditch no platform? The first two were quite interesting, and even got a bit intense when the two Americans on the 5-person panel in the second forum got into a big argument. There were some tense moments. But I was VERY engaged with the third, which was an actual one-versus-one debate. It was about “no platform” in the NUS (the national students’ union), which says that no racist or fascist organization can participate in an NUS debate, be invited to speak, or run for election. Student 1 first argued that we should ditch this, and at first, I was on his side. I thought, free speech is important! By debating with them, we are not legitimizing them, but proving them wrong. But then Student 2 spoke and I was beginning to sway. And then the audience started asking questions and they were ALL against Student 2, against no platform. They were mainly talking about the BNP (British National Party), which is pretty racist and is anti-immigration. So I felt bad for the poor guy and put my hand up, and was actually called upon to speak! So I basically said, “I’m Canadian (everyone who had spoken was British), so I don’t know much about the BNP. But in Canada we have restrictions on hate speech and I think that that is important. So my question is to [Student 1]: If it is true that racial violence increases after the BNP speak in that area (as was argued), do you think that the ideal of free speech trumps the safety of the local population?”

Things that have begun to annoy me about London:

I think this is the court of justice in Inverness. Or a church.

The river in Inverness – SO beautiful, which was great because this was the day I went to a Scottish wedding.

You can really tell it’s sunny in this photo. This is me and Christe with a Scottish tourguide.

A typical street scene in Inverness.

Me by the river.

The wedding took place at the Inverness football pitch. The ceremony took place up in the stands, but then they took pictures on the pitch.
This look like a VERY expensive bottle of scotch, since it’s under lock and key.

This is me, Christe, and her friend Kay, who was SO nice!

And that’s the end of my Inverness adventure! Christe and I flew to London the following morning at an obscenely early time, and had a fabulous time in London!

 Here’s another view of the Loch. I think this is the part of the Loch where most of the sightings take place.
And a castle located on the shore of the Loch – imagine living here back when it was a working castle??
And this is when we stopped at a village along the Loch. Quite beautiful. The weather was a tad drab, but it was almost fitting considering we were at Loch Ness.